The Retaliators Review: A Blood-Soaked Revenge Tale
Although revenge horror is as popular as the slasher, it has a much more tangled past than Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. The topic of sexual assault-centered revenge films has been a legitimate source of controversy, with exploitative films like The Last house on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave giving way to more recent re-imaginings of the genre like Revenge, a 2017 French film with a feminist perspective, or Promising Young Woman, the Oscar-winning Carey Mulligan film. The Retaliators, written by brothers Darren and Jeff Allen Geare, follows in the footsteps of earlier vengeance films like Mandy, Blue Ruin, and Ma in how it approaches the genre.
The Retaliators introduces Pastor Bishop, a single father of two daughters named Sarah and Rebecca, after a somewhat perplexing opening scene. Early on in the movie, Pastor Bishop preaches something akin to a hard-rock church sermon. Although he loves Sarah and Rebecca, he is harsh with them. Bishop is devastated and grieving after Sarah is brutally murdered by drug dealer ram Kady. He prays for answers that may never materialise. Jed, the investigator in charge of Sarah's investigation, is driven by his own need for vengeance stemming from the murder of his own wife ten years earlier. Jed is determined to uncover Sarah's killer. Jed brings Bishop to a horrifying, vicious criminal underworld of retribution in search of answers.
When combined with the filthy underworld that Bishop gradually finds enmeshed in, the gore (which includes airborne limbs and decapitations galore) feels especially appropriate in a revenge story with such visceral wrath and terrible loss, conveyed with aplomb by both Lombardi and Menchaca. Because it can tap into that grime without losing what makes the genre great, independent horror has always thrived, and The Retaliators is no exception. Lombardi, who helped produce the movie and gives a standout lead performance, became something of an advocate for the project after the Geare Brothers posted the script to The Blacklist.
Naturally, there is still resentment over what transpired, both for Pastor Bishop and the actual events that served as the inspiration for the movie. Anyone familiar with the theme is fully aware of The Retaliators' suggestion that revenge, even when exacted, may never be sufficient. This is where The Retaliators stumbles as it tries to accept everything while dodging definitive solutions. Even so, the movie succeeds as a piece of horror, achieving a certain unsettling vibe that is occasionally missing from the too polished genre material released all too frequently.